PENSACOLA, FL, January 28, 2025 - ActiGraph, the global leader in wearable digital health technology for clinical research and development, and Hyfe Inc., the pioneer in AI-powered cough detection technology, have announced the release of their new digital health solution for detection of coughs using the ActiGraph LEAP wearable. This new combined solution allows researchers to leverage Hyfe’s validated cough detection algorithms alongside ActiGraph’s industry leading digital measures for physical activity, sleep, and vital signs.
“Cough detection is not simple and especially hard to do well at scale. Hyfe has developed a robust solution with solid scientific validation,” said Christine Guo, Chief Scientific Officer at ActiGraph. “We designed our LEAP wearable with the appropriate sensors and firmware to detect and count cough events over extended time periods in a real-world environment. We are excited to provide researchers new options for how they measure patient experiences in clinical trials.”
The new solution deploys Hyfe’s patented technology for cough detection and counting using the existing ActiGraph LEAP sensor capability. Hyfe’s algorithms have been used in 49 research trials and featured in 19 peer-review publications. This research includes studies in 16 different clinical conditions including COPD, asthma, oncology, heart failure, and many more. This breadth speaks to the potential impact that a more accurate, longitudinal measurement of cough can have in research and drug development.
“Hyfe is delighted to have partnered with ActiGraph to bring cough frequency data to the LEAP,” said Peter Small, CSO at Hyfe. “We built the world's first ever privacy-preserving cough-monitoring algorithms so that longitudinal cough data could be widely available within research and healthcare. This partnership is an important step towards that!”
The ActiGraph-Hyfe solution allows for passive data collection of cough events during the day and at night, giving researchers the ability to use ActiGraph’s existing library of validated clinical measures for physical activity, sleep, and vital signs for a comprehensive view of cough symptoms. The Hyfe algorithms run on the ActiGraph LEAP device, which was designed specifically to preserve patient privacy by not recording or storing ambient audio data.
When deployed using the ActiGraph Connect platform, researchers will be able to monitor real-time participant adherence and track device health in the cloud.
Researchers have traditionally relied on patient-reported outcomes or dated ‘cough recording’ digital tools when conducting clinical trials, which measure cough for 24-hour periods. This new solution allows for a more robust measurement of the patient's experience over weeks and months, which can more accurately depict the expression of this symptom that typically is highly variable over time.
This new partnership between Hyfe and ActiGraph is part of ActiGraph’s Accelerant partnership program, designed to advance the use of digital health technologies (DHTs) in clinical development by simplifying access to patient data and raw data streams.
***
About ActiGraph
ActiGraph is pioneering the digital transformation of clinical research. We provide end-to-end digital health technology (DHT) solutions by integrating and operationalizing the best hardware, software, and algorithms to generate reliable evidence and get the right treatments to the right patients, faster. ActiGraph’s medical-grade wearable technology platform has been used to capture real-world, continuous digital measures of activity, sleep, and mobility for nearly 250 industry-sponsored clinical trials and thousands of academic research studies. Appearing in over 25,000 published scientific papers to date, ActiGraph is the most experienced and trusted wearable technology partner in the industry.
About Hyfe
Hyfe Inc. is the leader in AI-powered cough-monitoring technology. Our patented machine-learning software enables passive, long-term monitoring of cough frequency, revealing novel health insights. We deliver cough-monitoring solutions that empower pharma and academic researchers to advance clinical trials, enable healthcare providers to optimize patient care, and power digital therapeutics to transform the management of chronic cough. https://www.hyfe.com/
Contact us to learn more about how our new digital health solution for cough monitoring can support your research.
